Iran’s Qashqavi Rejects Military Base Remarks Reports, TV Says

Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian deputy foreign minister
Hassan Qashqavi rejected reports citing him as saying that Iran
would open its Parchin military base to the United Nations’
atomic agency if there is an end to threats against the country.

“In my speech, which I delivered in Tehran University,
there are two subjects,” Qashqavi said in an interview with
Press TV published on the state-run news channel’s website late
yesterday. Qashvai said part of his speech was on “national
security of Iran and the other was about the nuclear issue” and
a present reporter had “mixed” the “two separate issues.”

In a report published by Iran Diplomacy, a website run by
former Iranian diplomats, Qashqavi was quoted as saying this
week “If external threats are cooled off, the possibility will
be given to visit the Parchin site.” He didn’t elaborate on
conditions for allowing the visit or threats the country faces.

The IAEA has identified its top goal in Iran as being a
visit to Parchin, a military base about 30 kilometers (19 miles)
southeast of Tehran. The IAEA says it was given intelligence
information showing Iran may have constructed a blast chamber
for testing nuclear-weapons components at the site. Iran says
the evidence given to the nuclear agency by unnamed countries
was forged, that it hasn’t worked on developing an atomic weapon
and its nuclear activities are aimed at securing energy.